What is Soft Science?
The term “soft science” is sometimes used to refer to branches of scientific inquiry which rely more on conjecture and qualitative analysis than rigorous adherence to the scientific method. “Soft science” is often used as a pejorative, differentiating it from “hard science,” with the implication that only hard science is real science. A number of fields could be considered soft science, including the social sciences, psychology, and anthropology, although in fact these fields represent a mix of hard and soft science. In hard science, the focal point is experiments. Researchers set up experiments which can be carefully controlled and reproduced, and they use these experiments to test a hypothesis, collecting data which can be analyzed in a variety of ways to gather information about the outcome of the experiment. Hard science relies on direct observation, and prides itself on being as balanced and unbiased as possible. The goal is to get to the facts above all else. Soft science may or
